III.

Building a Career

Gorbachev began his political career in the Komsomol, the traditional training ground for Soviet party officials. In 1956 he became first secretary of the Komsomol organization for the city of Stavropol. In 1958 he accepted a position in the propaganda department of the Komsomol committee for Stavropol Territory. Thriving in the political environment, Gorbachev rose swiftly, becoming first secretary of the Komsomol regional committee by 1961. In 1962 he transferred into the Stavropol branch of the CPSU, specializing in the farm sector and winning the trust of the regional first secretary, Fyodor Kulakov. In 1966 Gorbachev was promoted to first secretary of the Stavropol city committee of the CPSU and in 1968 to second secretary of the party committee of Stavropol Territory.

In April 1970, having been recommended to CPSU general secretary Leonid Brezhnev by Kulakov (then a member of the Soviet leadership), Gorbachev became first secretary of the Stavropol Territory CPSU committee, the youngest regional first secretary in the Soviet Union. The following year he was granted a seat on the CPSU Central Committee. As party chief of Stavropol Territory, Gorbachev experimented with techniques for encouraging agricultural workers and farm managers to improve productivity. He worked to improve the living conditions of workers in the region and to allow farming collectives to play a greater role in planning.

Gorbachev owed his political advancement to his vigorous performance in office and also to personal connections. In addition to Fyodor Kulakov, Gorbachev enjoyed the confidence of Mikhail Suslov, who served as senior secretary for ideology of the CPSU, and of Yuri Andropov, the chairman of the KGB, the Soviet secret police. Suslov had served as first secretary of the Stavropol Territory committee of the CPSU in the 1940s; Andropov was a native of the area and often took holidays there.

In November 1978, shortly after Kulakov’s death, Gorbachev moved to Moscow to succeed Kulakov as Central Committee secretary responsible for Soviet agriculture. In 1979 he also became a candidate (non-voting) member of the CPSU’s Politburo, its top policy-making body. In October 1980, at the age of 49, Gorbachev was made a full member of the Politburo, thus becoming the youngest member of the Communist Party’s inner circle.